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Teamsters Charged With Extorting 'Top Chef' Staff

BOSTON (CBS) - The Teamsters have had a rocky relationship with Hollywood productions in Massachusetts and today the government released an indictment accusing members of criminal extortion during a filming of a Top Chef episode in June of 2014.

Federal prosecutors say it was a case of violence, extortion, harassment and intimidation. According to the indictment Teamsters were furious that Top Chef was using non-union workers and used "old school thug tactics" to force the company to hire their union members.

Read: The Indictment

Among them is the local's secretary-treasurer 61-year-old Mark Harrington who's attorney Robert Goldstein says, "The only conduct in which he engaged was to exercise his lawful right to protest a company that was not maintaining area standards for wages and benefits. He categorically rejects any alleged facts inconsistent with his complete innocence."

Also named in the indictment is 47-year-old Daniel Redmond, 44-year-old Robert Cafarelli, and 50-year-old John Fidler. They allegedly chased the popular reality show out of Boston, which then set up shop at the Steel and Rye restaurant in Milton. It's here the indictment says, "Two or three of the defendants entered the production area and began walking in lockstep toward the doors of the restaurant where they chest-bumped and stomach-bumped crew members in an attempt to forcibly enter the restaurant."

They're also accused of yelling expletives at host Padma Lakshmi when she arrived at the restaurant. "The defendants yelled profanities and racial and homophobic slurs at the crew and others....used physical violence and threats of physical violence to try and prevent people from entering the set," according to the indictment.

Harrington, Redmond and Cafarelli were released on a $50,000 unsecured bond. Fidler, whom the prosecution called a "danger to the community" faces a detention hearing on Thursday.

The government had indicted a fifth defendant, but later said they had the wrong man.

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